1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capture apparatus typified by a digital camera and, more particularly, to a camera signal processing technique capable of acquiring ray space information (also called a light field).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent digital cameras are gaining sophisticated functions, and technical differentiation is becoming more difficult. As a new camera form, there is proposed a camera capable of acquiring ray space information. Such a camera is popularly called a light field camera or the like. The light field camera can provide a function such as a change of the focus position after shooting by acquiring light beams having passed through different pupil areas, and reconstructing an image to obtain an output image.
The reconstruction processing requires accurate ray information. However, it is sometimes difficult to obtain accurate ray information owing to the influence of, for example, the positioning accuracy of an optical element (a microlens array or the like is used) for acquiring the eclipse state of the photographing lens and ray space information.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-175680 discloses a light field camera which obviates the need for accurate positioning by recording information of a microlens array and light receiving element array, and appropriately processing it.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-152006 discloses a technique of detecting the focus at high accuracy by performing appropriate signal processing even in a situation in which an eclipse occurs in the optical system of a focus detection apparatus.
However, it is sometimes difficult for the conventional techniques disclosed in these patent literatures to obtain an appropriate image in a situation in which an eclipse occurs. More specifically, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-175680 does not disclose a method which copes with the angle accuracy of the photographing lens upon an eclipse. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-152006 does not disclose an output image generation method in a light field camera in consideration of an eclipse.